Lincoln Park News
San Diego and Lowry Zoos forced to give up federal permits authorizing wild elephant imports
Wildlife advocates claim significant conservation victory "These two well-known Zoos have been forced to surrender their import permits after being caught making fraudulent misrepresentations to the U.S. government," said Suzanne Roy of In Defense of Animals, a member of the coalition. She explained that in their permit applications, the Zoos claimed the elephants would be captured from the 18,000-acre Mkhaya Game Reserve in Swaziland and that they would have to be killed if they were not imported, because of a lack of suitable habitat in the Reserve. In fact, the Zoos now acknowledge that more than half of the elephants were captured from the adjacent 74,000-acre Hlane National Park, which had claimed no such need to cull elephants. While the Zoos have told the public they are "rescuing" these animals from certain death, there is simply no basis for this assertion. Not only is there currently ample space for these particular animals in Swaziland, but according to Adam Roberts of Born Free USA and the Animal Welfare Institute, "if Swaziland truly must reduce its elephant population (a questionable claim given that the entire country has fewer than 40 elephants), then several reserves in Africa have indicated a willingness to take the elephants, allowing them to continue to live in a wild setting in Africa. Wildlife belongs in the wild." "Better yet, if African elephant conservation were truly the goal, zoos could donate the estimated $300,000 Swaziland needs for fencing to expand the elephants' range," Roberts added, "thereby obviating the need to move the animals at all." This expense pales in comparison to the estimated $11 million the Zoos are spending to import the elephants and construct new facilities to house them. "The bottom line is that these Zoos desire elephants for purely commercial purposes as attractions and breeders, and they are willing to go to great lengths, including falsifying information on permit applications to the federal government, to obtain them," observed Nicole Paquette of the Animal Protection Institute, another coalition member. "However, the commercial exploitation of African elephants from Swaziland is prohibited under U.S. and international endangered species laws." The Zoos also had provided elephant microchip numbers in order to specifically identify the "individual" elephants who would be taken from the Mkhaya Game Reserve, as required by the laws governing the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species ("CITES"). However, it is now clear that these microchip numbers were not associated with any specific elephants and were instead placed on the animals after they were captured. In fact, the Zoos now admit that they immobilized 22 elephants - twice as many as needed for their exhibition projects. Thirteen elephants (11 targeted for export and 2 cruelly held as replacements) are currently being confined in a holding area in Swaziland. According to Katherine A. Meyer of the Washington D.C. based public interest law firm of Meyer & Glitzenstein that is representing the coalition "the Zoos no longer have valid permits to import wild elephants. While they may try to obtain new permits, federal law prevents the renewal of any permits to a party that has made material misrepresentations to the government. Therefore, since the Zoos clearly misrepresented extremely critical information about the location and identity of the elephants and the purpose of removing the animals from the wild, the government has no legal basis on which to reissue the permits to the Zoos." Debbie Leahy of PETA characterized the zoos' setback as an "important victory for protecting wild elephants." "This elephant import has nothing to do with conservation and everything to do with obtaining new 'specimens' to maximize profits," she said. "These free-roaming elephants would have been bored and miserable in the zoos' small, barren enclosures. It is no wonder that so many captive elephants die prematurely." "This import would set a dangerous precedent by fueling an international market for wild elephants to be used in exhibitions and entertainment, thus undermining protection for this threatened species," said Florence Lambert, director of the Elephant Alliance. "We vow to continue our efforts to stop this illegal import and exploitation of young elephants captured from the wild." # # # Additional Contacts: Debbie Leahy, PETA 630/393-9627, Nicole Paquette, Animal Protection Institute, 916/447-3085 x214 Will Travers, Born Free Foundation, 011 44 1 403 327833 Florence Lambert, Elephant Alliance, 858/454-4959 Cathy Liss, Animal Welfare Institute, 703-836-4300 Deniz Bolbol, 650/654-9955 Katherine Meyer & Tanya Sanerib, Meyer Glitzenstein, 202/588- # # # |